Initially given the pun-intended title Drag-On Dragoon, Drakengard is a
game
which cancels itself out with utter repetition and uninspired gameplay
in
whole. Certain elements were lifted directly from other, much better
titles
and were dumbed down into a state of mayhem and frenzy that’s enjoyable
for
maybe about your first hour into the game. Then let all the
head-splitting
headaches settle in while you moan about how much of a disappointment
this
game turned out to be.

Drakengard tells the story of Caim, a fiery warrior with a constant
thirst
for blood and death who serves for the Union. In the beginning, he was
overpowered by the forces put forth by the opposing Empire and was left
to
die. Trapped inside the castle, he encounters a dragon, also heavily
wounded
and was barely alive. The two had to make a pact in order to survive,
for
Caim’s journey has just begun. And with his newfound powers, he begins
to
unravel the mystery of the Empire, though the pact consequently made
him
lose his voice in return. He also sets out to protect Furiae, his
sister
who’s also a goddess-of-the-seals from incoming threats. Not to mention
that
Caim and the dragon seems content with the chore of eradicating
hundreds of
near-identical and generic enemies each level for the next 15 hours or
so by
the use of precisely one attack button. As far as the gameplay goes, it
doesn’t get anywhere after you learn the basics. There are three ways
of
wandering about in Drakengard: on foot, above the battle and high
above the
clouds. The first two are usually interchangeable during open-air
battles,
while the third is specified for certain missions which pits you up
against
airborne fiends.

Ground – Regular :
To begin with, ground battles are just plain boring. Each and every
time
throughout the game, you are required to kill specific ‘Target’ enemies
amidst the sea of never-ending groups of soldiers suddenly protruding
from
the thick fog before you. These ‘Target’ enemies are usually spread
across
the vast battlefields, often leaving you with no choice but to slay
just
about everyone else close to them in order to nail that one person. But
the
problem is, this concept eliminates the need to commit a full-blown
genocide
when the story only progresses by the killings of six or seven slightly
tougher warriors. RPG elements such as accumulating EXPs and leveling
up are
lame excuses for you to engage in these battles. Supposedly, Caim
receives
the aid of Union ‘reinforcements’. This never happens, although
occasionally
they pop up on in-game dialogue screens to inform you about the current
battle situation. It just bogs down to one man and his dragon
single-handedly waging war against the world. Playable allies do become
accessible, but they’re hardly any different from Caim and are even
lamer. (Say, a guy who made a beast-pact with a faerie? Please.)

The indoor levels are a pain. For example, the first time you’re inside
a
castle, take a quick look at the ‘map’ and you’ll find that all
available
paths look completely symmetrical. To put it simply, there’s no
exploration
value here. The only treasure chests you’ll ever find would contain
either
health or magic points. To make matters worse, features such as stairs
and
doors are never marked anywhere, and getting from Point A to Point B
will
probably take about 20 minutes longer than it would due to dozens of
enemies
littered in narrow, identical corridors and effectively trapping you
like a
rat. Dead ends aplenty, you’ll be thoroughly annoyed before finding out
clearly where you should head to in order to complete the mission.

Drakengard offers a multitude of different enemies. This ranges from
soldiers, knights, archers and right up to goblins. Most of the enemy
A.I.
are clumsy and impotent, leaving them to die by the wrath of your
sword/axe/kris. The only time you’ll be defeated would probably be by
pure
quantity and tougher guards that are more persistent in knocking you
down
with huge clubs. However, long-range enemy attacks are unavoidable.
Archers
and Wizards will continuously hit you from afar and you’ll lose vast
amounts
of health before even managing to get close to them. Assuming you don’t
die
first, of course.

Now on to the gameplay. For regular attacks, you’ll just need to press
Square repeatedly. And if that’s anything to go by, it’ll probably
remind
you of those days in FFVIII when you endlessly press Square during
ominously
long Guardian Force sequences to boost power. And after killing off a
few
enemies, your weapon flashes, press Triangle to execute a magic attack.
There, that’s it. There are absolutely no variety into your moves
whatsoever. It’s just swing, slash, stab, magic attack, ad nauseam.
Sure,
you’re able to equip eight different weapons at a time but when it
comes
down to insipidly simple hack-and-slashing, there’s no real need to use
the
other seven, ever. The cameras are just as troublesome. You’ll have a
hard
time adjusting to your desirable view by rotating R3, though you can
also
use L2, which doubles up as the Defend button. However, the character
movement becomes too awkward, leaving you vulnerable to the clusters of
soldiers attacking you from all sides. The Roll button is no help
either;
you’ll be stuck with more Square-pressing and that’s about it. As a
whole,
the gameplay is too basic and dampens the fun factor close to nil.

Ground – Above The Battle:
This function allows you to hop on the dragon just above the ground to
go
destroy dozens of enemies at once with fireballs and a devastating
firebreath special attack. The dragon allows you to travel faster
across the
land, and provides a good sense of scale since you can dismount at any
time
and jump straight into battle. But sometimes navigating through areas
can be
a huge annoyance. Even when you found the targeted location to go into,
you’d be unable to get off a dragon and are forced into backtracking to
open
areas so you can finally walk to it. For battling purposes, a fireball
or
two usually kills off the generic clumps of baddies prowling below,
though
you’ll again wonder why you should even be bothered to destroy them in
the
first place.

Air - High Above the Clouds:
In a scarce attempt to alleviate boredom, the developers decided to
alternate ground and air missions every so often. This time the dragon
takes
center-stage in annihilating enemies. Said enemies include airships,
misplaced control towers, bats, griffons, something that seemingly
resembles
an Indian tent and flocks of small floating cubes (about 20 of it at
a
time) that shoot at you. Prepare to be more dumbfounded as most of the
missions actually requires you to destroy every single target in air.
It
doesn’t help that most of them are incredibly small and agile, so much
so
that only a few special attacks of simultaneously released fire beams
would
take them out. As far as the ‘targeting system’ is concerned, they’re
just
cumbersome. With the lack of a lock-on feature, you’re left with the
task of
manually putting yourself in a position that faces the enemy and
dispatching
them individually with fireballs. Terrible.

The Rest of the Game:
The graphics in this game are below-average. The environments are all
dark,
greyish, generic and bland. The level of visibility is pretty low, and
getting through the massive overworld requires the constant viewing of
area
maps and finding out distinctive landmarks to know that you’re actually
in
the correct place. Occasionally animation stutters and slowdown occurs
when
too many enemies are onscreen, although this rarely happens during
ground
battles but more to the dragon’s flying bits. Indoor levels are
horribly
textured and appears the same everywhere you go. To conclude, if you’ve
seen
one thing, you’ll have to get through more of the same for about the
next
hundred times.

Now for the few parts that’s not entirely bad. The storyline starts off
weird but becomes more compelling as you progress. You’ll also be
treated to
a huge amount of trademark Square FMV sequences that are simply
spectacular
and a joy to watch. The music is the one department where the game
truly
shines. Magnificently conducted orchestral scores gives you a
distinctive
feeling of impending doom and sets up well with the tone of the entire
game.
Sorry, but that’s all you’re going to get. Drakengard is one of those
games
where the developers adopted too many different gameplay modes and
fails to
deliver in each and every one of them. It also suffers from the fact
that
they’re trying to impress you with mere quantity and this is a lasting
effect which doesn’t develop into anything else for the rest of the
game. If
you prefer worthwhile hack-and-slashers, try Koei’s excellent Dynasty
Warriors series. If you want to fly high above and put yourself into
unique
and highly intense battles that are actually fun, go try Sky Gunner or
Panzer Dragoon Orta. In the meantime, you can probably look at this
title
and see how not to make a good game.

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